Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in St John's, Antiqua in May 1949. She received a British education in Antiqua and was always at the top of her class. She stayed with her mother and stepfather and was very close to her mother. However when Jamaica was nine years old her mother had three sons and it changed there relationship forever. From then on she was neglected by her mother. The interests of her brothers were more important to her mother than her interests. When her third brother was born she was taken out of school, because her stepfather was sick, and could no longer support them. At the age of 16 she was sent to America to work as an au pair. She was suppose to send money home to her family, but she never did.Elaine refused to respond to her mother's correspondence or send money home. Instead of nursing, she studied photography. In 1973, Elaine changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in order to write anonymously.
That year Kincaid's first published piece, an interview with Gloria Steinem, led to a series of articles titled "When I was Seventeen." For three years, Kincaid worked as a freelance writer until William Shawn, the editor of the New Yorker, hired her as a staff writer. In time she took over the "Talk of the Town" column. Encouraged by her editor, Kincaid began to write fiction, which was often published as installments in the New Yorker.
Kincaid's first collection of short stories, At the Bottom of the River, won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The predominately autobiographical Annie John was critically acclaimed for its universal appeal as a coming-of-age story and for its treatment of indigenous Caribbean culture. Not having returned home in over twenty years, Kincaid wrote the book-length essay A Small Place, which chronicled Kincaid's outrage at the devastation of postcolonial Antigua: the corruption of the new leaders and the exploitation resulting from the influx of tourism. In 1989, Kincaid received the Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1991, after the publication of Lucy, Kincaid received honorary degrees from Williams College and Long Island College.
In 1996, Kincaid's youngest brother Devon died from AIDS at 33. That year she resigned from the New Yorker. The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, and Mr. Potter have received critical acclaim. Kincaid's love of horticulture has taken center stage in My Favorite Plant, My Garden Book, and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya. Kincaid married her editor's son, Allen Shawn, and they had a daughter, Annie, in 1985 and a son, Harold, in 1989. Kincaid Later lived in North Bennington, Vermont with her family. She then became a visiting lecturer on African and African American Studies and on English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University.
Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in St John's, Antiqua in May 1949. She received a British education in Antiqua and was always at the top of her class. She stayed with her mother and stepfather and was very close to her mother. However when Jamaica was nine years old her mother had three sons and it changed there relationship forever. From then on she was neglected by her mother. The interests of her brothers were more important to her mother than her interests. When her third brother was born she was taken out of school, because her stepfather was sick, and could no longer support them. At the age of 16 she was sent to America to work as an au pair. She was suppose to send money home to her family, but she never did.Elaine refused to respond to her mother's correspondence or send money home. Instead of nursing, she studied photography. In 1973, Elaine changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in order to write anonymously.
That year Kincaid's first published piece, an interview with Gloria Steinem, led to a series of articles titled "When I was Seventeen." For three years, Kincaid worked as a freelance writer until William Shawn, the editor of the New Yorker, hired her as a staff writer. In time she took over the "Talk of the Town" column. Encouraged by her editor, Kincaid began to write fiction, which was often published as installments in the New Yorker.
Kincaid's first collection of short stories, At the Bottom of the River, won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The predominately autobiographical Annie John was critically acclaimed for its universal appeal as a coming-of-age story and for its treatment of indigenous Caribbean culture. Not having returned home in over twenty years, Kincaid wrote the book-length essay A Small Place, which chronicled Kincaid's outrage at the devastation of postcolonial Antigua: the corruption of the new leaders and the exploitation resulting from the influx of tourism. In 1989, Kincaid received the Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1991, after the publication of Lucy, Kincaid received honorary degrees from Williams College and Long Island College.
In 1996, Kincaid's youngest brother Devon died from AIDS at 33. That year she resigned from the New Yorker. The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, and Mr. Potter have received critical acclaim. Kincaid's love of horticulture has taken center stage in My Favorite Plant, My Garden Book, and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya. Kincaid married her editor's son, Allen Shawn, and they had a daughter, Annie, in 1985 and a son, Harold, in 1989. Kincaid Later lived in North Bennington, Vermont with her family. She then became a visiting lecturer on African and African American Studies and on English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University.
"Her Story | BBC World Service." BBC - Homepage. 26 Feb. 2009 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/kincaid_life.shtml>.
"Jamaica Kincaid Biography." Brief Biographies. 26 Feb. 2009 <http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4506/Kincaid-Jamaica.html>.
Name. "VG: Artist Biography: Kincaid, Jamaica." VG: Voices from the Gaps. 26 Feb. 2009 http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/kincaid_jamaica.html.